MHK CareProminenceTM

Integrated medical and pharmacy management

The only platform that combines pharmacy and medical care, MHK CareProminence was purposely built to improve member care by closing care gaps while ensuring continual compliance with changing government regulations.

What Has the COVID-19 Crisis Told Us About Universal Access?

What Has the COVID-19 Crisis Told Us About Universal Access?

I try to keep my blogs relatively free of politics, but the COVID-19 pandemic shines a bright light on the nagging uninsured crisis and what it means to the health and welfare of our nation.

As the late, great health-care economist Uwe Reinhardt clearly articulated in his book, “Priced Out,” America is the only developed nation that has yet to endorse universal access to health care as a social good. If the coronavirus teaches us anything, I hope we conclude that if health care is not a fundamental right, it is darn near one. It certainly should not be a privilege driven by income class.

The record is slowly building that COVID-19 is having a disproportionate impact on those with no or sporadic access to health coverage. And, based on what we know about the profile of the uninsured, it also makes this a socio-economic issue, a racial one, and an ethnic topic.

Why is this? First, the uninsured tend to be individuals who are not in a job or position to work from home or social distance. Their risk of contracting the virus is thus much higher. Second, the uninsured, if employed, tend to work for employers that either do not offer insurance or the costs are simply too high. While many do take advantage of Medicaid and Exchanges, some are not eligible for truly affordable coverage. Third, their lack of access to good, consistent coverage also means that they often have undiagnosed or poorly maintained chronic conditions. This increases the risk of contracting coronavirus and severity of the illness if contracted. Last, many face socio-economic barriers to good health. Studies show these social determinants have greater impact on health outcomes than underlying clinical factors.

COVID-19 is teaching us that lack of universal access to health care has real life and death implications. By the way, this happens every day for the tens of millions that lack consistent access to coverage. They forego preventive visits for themselves and their families because of the cost of care. Their disease states and conditions exacerbate. Their cancers go undiagnosed. If they receive treatment, often it is late in the life cycle of their disease or illness, which leads to major health impacts and mortality costing the system as a whole tremendously more than it should. But on a day-to-day basis, all of this is largely hidden from most Americans who have that employer-based insurance connection or otherwise have insurance. While we care, it is largely swept under the carpet.

But with COVID-19, the cat is out of the bag. The light shines brightly on the faces of every American, but most importantly on those vulnerable Americans without coverage. It is not to say that COVID-19 discriminates. It does not. People with gold-plated health coverage will fall ill and perhaps even die, but those without coverage are more likely to fall ill and die in greater numbers. Because we lack universal access to health care, any pandemic by nature has a much greater impact on everyone – socially, financially, economically. Early numbers demonstrate this. The final statistics will bear out these impacts over time.

None of this is to say we should retire the health-care system we have today or endorse socialized medicine or single payer. I believe these are not answers to what ails the American health system. As a nation, though, we should view universal access to health care as a social good and implement a system where every American is entitled to affordable access and coverage. The rest of the developed world has done so. Although sometimes they have fanciful views of what health care should be, the Democrats have done so. It is time the Republicans recognize the ethics of health care, too.

Marc S. Ryan serves as MHK’s President and was one of MHK’s first executives shortly after its founding in 2010. Most recently, Marc served as MHK’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and before that as its Chief Strategy and Compliance Officer.

Prior to joining MHK, Marc held a number of executive-level regulatory, compliance, business development, and operations roles at a number of health plans. He launched and operated plans with Medicare, Medicaid, commercial and Exchange lines of business.

He also was the Secretary of Policy and Management and State Budget Director of Connecticut, where he oversaw all aspects of state budgeting and management. In this role, Marc created the state’s Medicaid and SCHIP managed care programs and oversaw its state employee and retiree health plans. He also created the state’s long-term care continuum program.

Marc was nominated by then HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson to serve on a panel of state program experts to advise CMS on aspects of Medicare Part D implementation. He was also nominated by Florida’s Medicaid Secretary to serve on the state’s Medicaid Reform advisory panel.

Marc graduated cum laude from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service. He received a Master of Public Administration, specializing in local government management and managed healthcare, from the University of New Haven. He was also inducted into Sigma Beta Delta, a national honor society for business, management and administration.

MHK, part of the Hearst Health network, is a Medical House of Knowledge, where care and knowledge converge. The only service provider that combines pharmacy and medical, MHK’s mission is to drive better member care in a changing healthcare environment by bringing every care moment in a person’s health journey together through an integrated platform. MHK is committed to helping health plans, PBMs, and provider organizations improve quality of care, enhance operational efficiency, maximize revenue, and meet compliance demands. Three of the top five and six of the top ten health plans are served by MHK and forty percent of all 4-5 Star Medicare health plans utilize MHK solutions.